


poisons in the way of decisions

by rockerlullaby



Category: Clueless (1995), Edelstein-Trilogie | Gem Trilogy - Kerstin Gier
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Clueless Fusion, Clueless AU, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Working title, i'll add more tags when i learn how to tag, or more like antagonists to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 01:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16882911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockerlullaby/pseuds/rockerlullaby
Summary: clueless + child star au + gem trilogy fusion (to be clear: this is a mess)When Grace died, Gwen's was immediately swept up by an agent, who took her off to LA, no objection from neither Lady Arista or Falk. Lady Arista honestly thought it would do the girl good to build something for herself; Falk had just been lumped with Nick and Caroline in addition to his sort of nephew.Now Falk's getting remorseful about sending his ex-stepdaughter off overseas, so he calls her back. Gwen doesn't want to admit it, but she's glad. The people, the cameras, the schedules─they were too much. She was glad to get her siblings for herself again. Lesley was also in London and she missed her─video calls just weren't the same. She was looking forward to shoving on a wig, plastering a new name, leaning back and taking it slow.Then the time travel gene woke up and nothing is as peaceful as they sold it to her.Especially with her sort of ex-stepbrother (distant ex- stepcousin many times removed? what the hell was he even?), who has no soft spot for her to speak of.





	poisons in the way of decisions

**Author's Note:**

> So, I probably haven't thought this through. I wrote this chapter as I read the first book─and time travel tangles my brain so I'm likely forgetting something. But this is like my third try on this idea and my second publishing it, but I feel better about this one. Let me know what you think!

**[GsGsGs] Music Room**

 

There is a point in which I have to admit: regardless of condescending big talk about family and not abandoning family, Falk de Villiers certainly didn't seem to care about me.

I gave my phone the evil eye when it reach the fifteenth ring. Come. On.

Falk picked up.

"Thank God," I said under my breath.

"Excuse me?"

I pursed my lips, rather like Lady Arista when I showed up behind Charlotte. It didn't disturb her very much more: quickly, Lady Arista and Aunt Glenda caught up on Charlotte's whole demeanor of _oh, darn it, I finally get to travel in time─what a drag._ "You're not Falk," I pointed out, definitely not pissed. Nope noppity nope.

"Oh, I'm most certainly not," the woman on the phone tittered. _Woman._ Date? Was that asshole on a date while I was stuck on 81 Bourdon Place? "This is Falk de Villiers mobile─how may I help you?"

"You can get him to answer my calls," I told her sweetly, my nails screeching against the back of my own mobile.

"Dear, please don't make that terrible noise," Great-aunt Maddy admonished me, looking half asleep. I lingered on her soft slippers and comfy robe. I wish I was half asleep.

A dizzy spell wrecked my balance for a second, forcing out my anger and making me catch purchase on the wall of the Music Room. I wasn't sure just how welcome I would be in my previous quarters─where Mom, my siblings and I used to live before she died and I went away─and I wasn't inclined to spend the rest of Falk's working day─which could extend to unspeakable hours (though, if he could get himself out for a date...)─in Lady Arista's home. Especially when everyone was going crazy about Charlotte getting dizzy spells and─I glanced at her, horrified─now she was dressed in some kind of nightie/dressing gown/nun's habit combo.

"Hello?"

"Listen, lady," I said into the microphone, lowering my voice so she could understand what a Big Deal this was. "I don't know how to get to Falk's place on the bus. I _know_ how to get to Saint Lennox from here and I can walk all the way to the closest Selfridges, but Falk's flat? Nope. Out of the question. I wouldn't even _know_ where to start." Maybe Google Maps. Actually, I could try that… if I was willing to arrive crawling because I wouldn't be able to walk all the way. "So if you could get him to pick me up and get me home─that would be a treat.

"Oh─ All right. I'll s─"

"Don't start making out before you do, 'kay?"

"Excuse me?" she demanded. As well as she could, at least, her pitch rising with her temper.

"Aren't you going to take notes, write me down, anything? This is an important call. You can't very well tell him an unknown girl called asking to be driven to his place. That would be terribly weird, I'd like to think."

"Who would this be?" the woman asked tightly.

"His stepdaughter, the eldest." I smiled sweetly, because that kind of things sounded in your voice when you talked. "Please and thank you. And get him to call me!"

God, did I hope he wouldn't bring home that woman. He'd never done it before… to my knowledge, which wasn't that vast. I wondered if Caroline would tell me. Probably not. But I could get it out of Nick if I picked up a snack on the way.

I wasn't sure what else to do but stare heavily at my mobile phone and wait, so I was glad when Great-aunt Maddy called me over to offer me a sherbet lemon. I smiled gratefully.

It was so easy to feel isolated in this house. Falk could be daunting but he let them be. They could be alone together. Here, Nick and Caroline would have been snuffed out; no one to protect their voices, no one to sneak them treats in the morning.

No one to hug them.

We chatted quietly─reigned in by Aunt Glenda's shrilly snaps and Charlotte's, which were slightly more elegant. I was mocking Charlotte's ridiculous dress with Great-aunt Maddy when Lady Arista walked in, like she had been summoned by the need to protect the precious time traveller. _Oh, Lady Arista! Evil Gwyneth has been righteously criticizing my clothes! Whatever will I do to protect myself!_

I rolled my eyes.

"There's a driver on his way. The─" I didn't quite catch what she said next due to my mobile ringtone: " _LAFAYETTE!_ ", but Lady Arista did catch me because she gave me a dark glare. Hers was also more elegant than Aunt Glenda's. Medusa-level, thought she was far from hideous. She was aristocratic and cold, the kind of woman one would cast as the evil queen. "─are expecting us at the Temple. What is that awful sound, Gwyneth?"

" _LAFAYETTE! And I'm never gonna stop until I make them drop─_ " my phone blared incessantly.

I pressed my it between my hands and smiled tightly. "My mobile. I'll take it."

I could feel her gaze hammering into my back but I ducked out before she could verbally lacerate me.

"And don't forget the lemon sherbets!" Great-aunt Maddy called after me.

"Yes?"

"Just what did you think you were doing?"

My tight smile extended, my teeth pressing down hard. There just was something about Falk that made me so angry. "Gwendolyn speaking. Who would this be?"

He made a deep noise of warning. "Gwendolyn."

"Falk."

He sighed. "You said you needed a ride? Why are you even out of school?"

With his anger leaving, mine bleeded away. I nodded but, since we were on the phone, I added, "Yes."

"Gideon will pick you up and take you home." He paused and I was already rolling my eyes when he said, "Don't delay him─he has somewhere to be right now."

"Okay."

"It was good to know you have my number, Gwendolyn. Sometim─"

I hung up before he said something too mushy that would permanently damage the way our relationship was working. Cold, distant and apathetic. He came back when I was asleep and was long gone when I woke up. I avoided him whenever he was home, which was rare. It wasn't so bad: I didn't come back for him. I came back to hug my siblings.

 

**[GsGsGs] Selfridges**

 

In the space of the next twenty minutes, Earth disappeared and reappeared under my feet, I flung back and forward in time, I had to pull information from a shifty Great-aunt Maddy and, when I finally had the barest specks to work with, Lesley's internet connection just wasn't working.

Turns out Sir Isaac Newton had a very productive life with no public connection to shenanigans like _time traveling_ ; Temple as well and a chronograph was your common wristwatch.

"You have to talk to Lady Arista."

I winced. "Maybe Great-aunt Maddy would be a better option." If she even believed me.

"No, you heard her. She doesn't know much about this. Your grandma, on the other hand, was calling someone to get Charlotte to that chronograph."

I shook my head. "I don't think she'll be very happy."

"No one will be, I should think, but she'll know what to do to keep you out of harm's way. She's your grandma, she has to." I didn't think Lady Arista _had_ to do anything, but it was definitely the better─actually, I wasn't sure which was the worst option to ask for help. " Are you still there? Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes, I'm here, and yes, I did. Lesley?"

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry I've been so absent since I left to the US. I didn't mean to, it's just that Julia went down hard on me whenever she thought I was slacking and the schedules were crazy─"

"It's okay, I get it. You made great work over there. I watched every episode and I have all the three movies you made."

I beamed. "I'm so glad I have you. You're the best friend in the world."

It was okay to exchange mushiness with Lesley. We were best friends since forever. I truly didn't know what I'd do without her. It went on for a while, until Lesley cleared her throat. "I know you're scared of it, but all this is kind of cool. I mean, it's a real adventure, Gwen! And you're right in the middle of it."

I looked at the hour rather than answer that particular morsel of anxiety. "Dammit, I need to get these to Great-aunt Maddy ASAP. Gideon is bound to arrive soon and I'm not supposed to delay him."

"Pity. I know you'd love to delay him."

I laughed. "Did I tell you him and Charlotte spent the whole reception of my mom's wedding stuck by the hip?"

"Yes, you always bring it up. Because you like him. You're besotted. Just kiss him already."

"He'd rather Charlotte."

"Maybe. But you're too pretty for him anyway. What about Sebastian? That one kiss in the The Dragon Deliberation looked great."

"You know, I haven't talked to him recently. Last time we spoke, he said he had a surprise for me." I paused, but in the end I caved. "And it was indeed one hot kiss."

Lesley laughed loudly. I pulled the mobile from my ear a couple of inches and smiled. At least I served as entertainment for her. It was the least I could do.

 

**[GsGsGs] Someone**

 

Lady Arista never believed I saw ghosts. Great-aunt Maddy said it was because she didn't grow up Montrose, but Aunt Glenda and Charlotte did, and they didn't believe me either. Once, Aunt Glenda even left Nick and me stranded at Harrods.

The more I thought about it, I knew I couldn't bring myself to tell them. Fervently, not for the first time today, I wished Mom was still here.

Luckily, I wasn't forced to choose. Gideon was already parked in front of our house, leant against his Mini, which was remarkably shabby for the neighbourhood. It was a wonder Charlotte wasn't chatting him up so I had to assume they already left.

"I've got somewhere to be," Gideon snapped and unwound his legs to step up from the car.

I walked up to the house and knocked, just like I had a few minutes and numerous years ago. This time, the door opened.

"Miss Gwendolyn. Would you like to come in?"

"Not now." I winced a smile because I knew Charlotte never bothered and pushed the bag of lemon sherbets into his hands. "Great-aunt Maddy asked for them and my stepfather sent someone to pick me up. Gotta go."

"Someone," Gideon parroted, turning the key, after we got into his tiny car. He kept it mostly clean, but there were multiple medical journals lying around, too pretty to be anything other than expensive.

"Something," I corrected myself.

He snorted. "I always wondered why you're so bratty but looking at your house─"

I laughed, sharp and loud. "Right. Because you weren't born with a silver spoon shoved deep." The hypocrite. The de Villiers were bankers and lawyers and generally people involved in lies and money. This one wanted to be a doctor but with the amount of time he didn't spend at lessons… "What are you even doing out of campus?"

"What are you? Saint Lennox goes on for at least a couple hours more."

Well, Charlotte was having dizzy spells but turns out I travelled in time. But not like I could tell him that. Lesley I could excuse, but this asshole? "Charlotte felt ill."

"Are you ill?" he asked, eyeing my hand, which was tightly wrapped around the door handles. My knees were bent that way. If I started feeling dizzy, I would flipp off the lock, open the door and─well, Gideon would have to stop, and I would jump. I wasn't sure how mobile jumping into the past worked and I'd rather stay that way.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up." Not that far from the truth.

Gideon rolled his pretty green eyes. I don't he believed me.

Gideon usually didn't believe much of what I said. I honestly didn't know why. Whatever I'd said to him down both our lives couldn't have been much, let alone many lies. Which was a shame, because I could recite poetry to how beautiful he was and he wouldn't believe.

He flopped his hair to the side when it slid down over one eye, both his hands slack but secure around the wheel.

Gideon and I met when I was eleven, so he had to be about thirteen or fourteen. He was prettier then, now he's handsome. Or hot, if you happen to stumble against him just after the shower, steam curling out of the bathroom and around his body─which I happened to have done. He wasn't extraordinarily tall, just tall enough that I could tuck my head under his chin wearing heels. Tall enough that I often had to wonder how his stubbly chin would feel against my lips.

Even then, I knew he would never be my destiny. Too smart to pay attention to me, too close to me think I gleam. Too cold to warm me.

I turned to the window and prayed to gods I didn't believe in that this whole thing was a fluke.

 

**[GdvGdvGdv] Gleam**

 

When I met Gwendolyn Shepherd, I was fourteen. Almost five years ago. She was a cute little girl with long hair, carefully braided, showcasing her long neck; a sibling in each hand and the curl of a smile permanently on her lip.

I didn't think much of her. To be honest, I didn't think much too well of anything then. Not even Charlotte, who was increasingly becoming sweeter and more duplicitous. Or perhaps I was just taking notice of it.

Gwen was chatty, even then.

Which made it all the more jarring how silent she'd been the whole trip to the apartment complex where Uncle Falk dumps his children: he did it to me four years ago when Grace divorced him and two years ago when he got custody of her kids, in some kind of twisted power move/love gesture.

I looked at the arch of her neck stretched back which reminded me of things that I should definitely not think about my sort of stepsister. (What did that even mean? I wasn't legitimately even Falk's nephew, let alone stepchild to his ex-wife.) But there is a certain gleam to her that became starker every time I had to give her a ride or bring groceries over─which wasn't as often as I would've excepted of Falk de Villiers, absent guardian extraordinaire.

Even now, when she was clearly ill and red hair disheveled─she wore a wig in public, as if the electric blue of her eyes wouldn't give her aware more damningly─, head thrown back and hugging her backpack so tightly it looked like it might hug back─she gleamed.

For a normal girl, of course. The ones who weren't pressurized and stomped down to become something harder, like Charlotte was. Charlotte outright shone. And she needed people by her side today. I thought of her, unable to stand up for thirty seconds straight and a persistent inability to keep anything down. Hers was hitting her pretty bad─mine quick and ruthlessly pushed me back into the past. Hers seemed to be dragging it out.

I cleared my throat. "We're here."

"I know." She sighed. "Do you happen to know how long has this car park been here?" I frowned. "Forget it. See you." She closed the door behind her and left in a quick pace for the lift.

I rushed to roll down the window. "Have hot drinks and plenty of rest."

I was rewarded with the kind of laughter that warmed insides and a pretty smile over her shoulder. "Says the doctor?"

I grinned. I was glad Falk brought her back. We could never be much of anything─I'm one hundred percent convinced she would be out of the house as soon as American law let go of her money overseas─but meanwhile… Well, being Falk's errand boy, we were bound to see much of each other.

 

**[FdvFdvFdv] Children**

 

"Montrose women are impossibly hysterical!" I told my nephew as we pulled into my apartment complex with two new cots, a ton of new blankets and pillows for each of the Montroses currently sequestered by Lady Arista in HQ.

Gideon, half dead, was curled up in the back of the limousine, surrounding by our new buys. His eyes were red-rimmed and I knew why. Pre-med wasn't a walk in the park by itself. Added to that, he had his responsibilities with the lodge. But telling him to take a break would be a waste of time: the boy was an outshining example of willfulness and hardwork. More than that; he wanted to prove himself.

He wouldn't have done half of what he did if he didn't want to prove himself. He wouldn't be forgetting assignments and class schedules, either.

"You married one, uncle," he said under his breath.

The spark of my latest irritation flared. "Of course I did! I wouldn't have it any other way! That doesn't make them any less aggravating. Especially Glenda, what a harpy." I opened my door. "That's a survival tip for you: never fall in the net of a Montrose woman. Too many fights, not nearly enough benefits."

"What are we doing here?" Gideon asked, raising up like a prairie dog from it's hole. Like the boy hadn't lived here himself barely two years ago.

"I don't know if the children have eaten."

Gideon checked his phone and scowled. "It's ten past ten. They'll be ravenous if they've not."

But Grace's children were crafty. The first time I forgot to feed them─for a whole day, for shame─, they managed to scrounge out some nearly expired cheese and a couple of eggs and the boy, Nick, made a couple of omelettes. By the time I remembered and came running back with a couple of Happy Meals─and look at that, just I brought this time, too─, the children were tranquil and their bellies full, watching the telly. Gideon didn't know that. He'd never interacted much with Grace's children. By the time the court allowed them to move in with me, Gideon was already moving to his own flat, nearer to his university.

"They've snacks," I assured him.

When we arrived, everything was dark and a single figure laid in the tan leather couch in front of the telly, a crime series playing in the lowest volume setting.

Having Gwendolyn back has been an… strange experience, to say the least. Days could go by without seeing each other, hearing from each other. Irregular hours were my way of life and usually I came in just to sleep and leave groceries. When I didn't think there were any left, I sent Gideon with food.

Somehow, I figured Gwendolyn would be louder than her siblings. Must have been that she'd lived three years over in Hollywood, were everything flashed and called the eyes.

She certainly looked like her mother, whenever she came back for work and laid across our couch. I would carry her to our room or I might kiss her until stumble into our room anyway.

Must be the redhead wig.

I dumped the greasy paper bag into the counter.

"You should throw it away; they're not going to eat that," Gideon assured me. He stayed by the door, and spoke as if I couldn't see how hard he tried and failed to look away from the Grace's girl.

I chuckled, made him look up to me. He didn't look like a de Villiers, he was all Selina and her husband but he was clearly making the mistakes of one. "Gideon, don't get involved with her. Or with Charlotte. I'm sure you're aware of the way she's been lookin─"

"Is there any reason we're here? Obviously they already ate."

Gwen shuffled awake before I could answer him, sleepy eyes blinking open as she reached under the wig to scratch her scalp. "Falk." She straightened abruptly. "Gideon. What are you doing here?"

I gave Gideon a glance before focusing solely on my eldest stepchild. "Gideon here will be giving you a ride to school tomorrow─I'm afraid I must take care of an specialized set of responsibilities these─"

"How old is this building?" Gwen interrupted me to ask. "The internet said the building changed name sometime in the 80s and owner around the 60s but I couldn't go much back."

I blinked. "Well, it's technically a heavily renovated building, but it used to be an storage facility. The upper floors stayed empty since its inauguration; no one wanted to store something higher than they could carry a mattress, turned out."

Gwen gave me a flat look.

Gideon shoved his hands into his pockets. "A smidge less than two hundred years."

I nodded. Gwen nodded in time.

"That's better than I thought," she murmured, head bowed for a second, before she sprung up and made her way to the stairs.

No good night, not anything. Moments like these─any interaction we had, come to think of it─made me wonder if bringing her back was really the right choice. Then I recalled the dead look in her eyes when she received that prize to best rising star or some dung like that─she needed this.

"Be in time!" I yelled after her. "Gideon must go to school!" Quieter, I added at him, "And in hand to aid Charlotte when she jumps."

He sighed, nodded, and dumped himself into the couch. He was asleep before I finished restocking groceries. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'd rather he sleep at the lodge.

I shelved the Happy Meals on the microwave and left.

By the time I came back, everyone was bickering again. Had they done this when Lucas was the Grand Master? I couldn't remember. Certainly they couldn't have been this loud. At least then Lady Arista had a husband to reign her in.

"How much time did you truly spend with the girl?" Jake questioned Lady Arista. Glenda, who didn't much care either way, was cuddling her daughter. (Grace would cuddle her children is she was here─God, I hoped they were taking care of each other.)

"She's my blood and the boy was a de Villiers. They always think they know best."

"Oh, and Montroses are merely meek victims, are they not?"

I closed the door behind me, longing for a second of motherfucking peace but I knew it just wasn't likely. The cots in my arms dropped with a bang and everyone looked up. I smiled my loosest smile, the one that I knew made people stopped for. "We've rehashed this enough for a lifetime. Hopefully, Charlotte will jump soon," I nodded at the quiet girl, "and we'll all be free from each other's company." To punctuate, I dumped the bag of pillows next.

"She has been claiming dizzy spells on and off every half hour," Jake told me as soon as I stopped by him.

"Oh, be kind, Jake," Thomas cajoled with a kind smile that I wasn't sure any woman here deserved. Well, maybe Charlotte. She truly was a sweetheart. "The girl is obviously in pain."

"I'm not convinced," Jake declared. "All this show for a girl who doesn't know how being dizzy feels─just an hour ago she claimed to have a migraine, too!"

"If nothing changes by tomorrow night, we'll move them back to number 81," I offered. Gwendolyn did seem to believe her cousin─she escorted her all the way there in foot. Then again, maybe she just didn't want to stay there a second longer, which wouldn't surprise me. "William, will you be staying, too?"

The school professor shook his head. "My students will be expecting me tomorrow and I'd rather keep my position in the school. It's… useful."

I smiled bemusedly. "Well, it is your job."

He returned the smile slightly. "Yes. I could of course escort you to your room on the way, Lady Arista?" he offered, raising his voice. Yes, good idea. Anything to stay away from that woman. She could glare a hole through our chronograph room wall. She nodded stiffly and followed him out. "See you tomorrow!"

Sometime after Jake and Thomas left and Charlotte curled up in one of the cots beside his mother and they were both making sleepy sounds, Lady Arista walked into Dragon Hall, obviously having escaped from the private room we cleared up from her.

I cleared my throat and stood up, hiding the draft letter to the count. Honestly, these Montrose women…

"We have business with each other, Falk," she said, rather imperiously, like most things that woman did. I used to not believe Grace when she said Lady Arista acted just the same in family─surely the woman had to laugh. Lucas was known for it. Maybe he did just marry her to marry into the bloodline. "I'm getting my children back."

I crossed my arms and legs and sat on the edge of the couch. "Are you?"

Lady Arista didn't respond to the smile I flashed her. "I let you keep them because my age and my daughter," she looked at Glenda, "would have proven obstacles for their proper development." She step forward, glare intensifying as she wove her fingers with each other. "But you've flied Gwendolyn in and now you're setting her back─"

"I'm not setting her back!"

"Be silent!" she hissed. "Yes you are, she has been accomplishing so much, making a legacy of her own at sixteen years old─ And you brought her back for take care of the children you obviously don't know what to do with."

_Will you take care of Gideon if I go away? He's a boy. He acts grown up but it's just that, an act._

_Of course, Falk. I love him. Do you love mine?_

_With every beat of my heart._

"I take care of them," I said thickly. I put the draft in my pocket and sauntered away, hoping her eagle eyes wouldn't catch the multiple chinks in my armour. (There were so many. Did she know they had to feed themselves? God.) "If you'll excuse me, my day is not quite done yet."

"I know why you broke up with Grace, Falk." Lady Arista turned around to face me but I couldn't do the same. I stayed stiff, facing the door─so close and so out of reach at the same time. I knew if we continued this conversation, somehow she would have me agree to let her have Grace's children and, admittedly, that was likely a good idea, but I couldn't do that to Grace.

I wonder if that one room with the couch was free─I certainly wasn't sleeping anywhere Lady Arista could find me so easily. Going home was tempting, it had been a while since I slept in my own bed, but we were so close and─well, we pledged to put the cause first, and I was leading our purpose.

Now more than ever, we needed this triumph.

"You know nothing, Lady Arista."

 

**[GsGsGs] A Second**

 

I woke up by a pulling sensation in my stomach. I knew some things about sensations in the belly but I was just recently acquainted with this new one: time travel cramps, I'd donned them.

Not a single fuck left to give because I couldn't─wouldn't─keep traveling back in time, I grasped around for my mobile, breaking a couple of nails in the night table on the way. I managed to clasp it and thumb in my pin number but before I could find my contact to number 81, my room blurred around me.

Then I fell on my ass. Obviously, my bed hadn't been here forever.

I grunted, curling up into myself. God, it was supposed to be a fluke. Why did this have to happen again? Charlotte was the one who would know what to do, with fancy instruction of the mysteries and fencing and _where_ the hell was I? I stood up, blinking back tears of frustration, and looked around. This time's brick walls didn't look as industrially chick as in my time; they just looked shabby, rather like they were dying from inside. Or something had died inside, like rats and cockroaches. I shuddered and stepped away.

Surveying the room, it was clear that I wasn't alone. Clumps of people covered in blankets huddled around the corners. I I got why─the heat was suffocating and, yup, there were no windows.

I bet the brick would feel cool against my skin─it was bound to be cooler than this wet air.

Storage facilities, Falk said. Could no information be straight from that man's mouth?

No one looked way, though.

"What are you doing here?" a voice demanded in the dark. "How did you climb up?"

I shot for the door and I would've run through that one another clearly defined door had it not been for the couple fucking against it. And not subtly, either─full on, her against the doorframe and the guy behind her, just thrusting into her. I flipped to give my back to them, only to find approximately twenty pairs of eyes staring at me from the dark.

"Are you wanting work?" another voice asked, gentler than the first. She stepped forward into the flimsy ray of sunlight coming from a crack in the ceiling. The woman was as gentle as her voice, almost birdy, with big eyes and─I flicked down my eyes and then quickly up─ yup, no bra to speak of. Or corset. Or whatever women wore as undergarments in this year. Or maybe she did have undergarments; a thin white underdress.

"What?" I parroted uselessly.

Birdy looked me up and down and I blushed when I noticed the way her eyes strayed in the same way mine did to her bosom. My legs were obviously a controversial sight. And I was also regretting the low-cut of the nightdress I'd slipped into when I climbed up to my room. At least it wasn't my Hello Kitty pajamas; those were being held ransom until Caroline decided she was happy with my presence in Falk's place.

"Mrs. Purpleplum will be glad to give you work─"

"No, she won't," she previous voice interrupted. A girl stepped out of the shadows to shove Birdy and glare at me with a defiant chin tilt. "She barged in here─she probably even disturbed the client!"

"Well, she quite obviously requires some sort of work," Birdy whispered furiously, giving sharp glances to my hair. I brought a hand up to my hair defensively. Having it under a wig all day did a number on it, okay? Sorry we couldn't all have it silky and perfect 24/7 like certain babes meant for greatness. "She doesn't even have a full underdress!"

Just the thought of jumping back in front of these people…

"Actually…" I said, taking a step back toward the fornicating couple. If I slid past them sideways and very quickly, maybe I wouldn't even touch him. I cringed when the man let out a loud moan. Good heavens! Weren't they even slightly disturbed by our chatter?

"Take her away!" a new girl demanded, hidden between bodies and blankets. This couldn't be very sanitary or comfortable. Half the girls looked as if they hadn't seen the sky in weeks! If I were to walk into number 81 like that, Lady Arista would throw me out onto my ass!

"Mindy, keep your trap shut!" Birdy and Miss I Have A Bone To Pick said simultaneously, glaring at each other for the unfortunate synchronicity.

I took another step back and raised my hands appeasingly. Obviously, I was not wanted here and Birdy was just genuinely kind by offering me to stay but, since this was clearly some kind of underground sex work establishment and I was underage (and I didn't live in this century and sex work just didn't seem like an appealing work option to me), I figured I could politely decline and be on my way.

"Who is this young lady?" yet another voice asked, far closer to me than I felt comfortable with.

Right behind me, a woman with a pole shoved up her ass─how did she stand that straight, otherwise?─looked at me with something akin to horror.

Chatter brewed behind me as I looked at the woman but the woman had no such freezing condition upon her. "Jurgen!" she called upon her shoulder. "Escort the intruder out! And find out how she got here!"

"She's just looking for work!" Birdy interceded quickly, far too anxious to appease my nerves.

Then I saw Jurgen come in and figured out his position in the whole operation. The man was a hulking mass of muscles half-hidden by a suit! And a tacky suit at that─far too many colors in a single outfit, and not compatible colors either. I wouldn't have been surprised to find him in a televised wrestling match!

"Get off!" I shrieked when he wrapped a meaty hand around my upper arm.

"Did Lady Cornelia sent you?" the woman with the pole demanded, matching Jurgen's quickened pace toward what I could only assumed where the whore house barracks? What was this even? I stared at her cluelessly, icky bugs climbing wherever Jurgen touched me. Like my waist when he threw me through a door into a closed off hallway! Ick!

"I have no idea who Lady Cornelia is!" I let her know, eyeing Jurgen carefully.

"Mrs. Purpleplum," Birdy said, avoiding the woman's eyes. "This is a friend of mine, Elizabeth─she's just looking for work. Her beau hurts her and her father knows but I told her you wouldn't let that happen to her and you could even pay her for it, should she do good work!"

Wow, this Birdy was a sister.

"I really just want to go," I had to say, because the farther I got from the mating couple, the better. Ugh, I could she their legs beside Jurgen's shoulder.

"Good morning!" a man called from the door to the main whore house. A male, old enough to be my ex-stepfather, walked in. He surveyed each woman in the room with appropiertary eyes─Birdy's bosom, Mrs. Purpleplum's long neck and then he took a good dragging look glance over my legs. I would've curled up to hide them had I not been sure that the floor had to be as dirty as a public restroom. Also, that would give her a peek under my skirt. This nightdress was simply too revealing!

Mrs. Purpleplum smirked, her long fingers curling over her walking stick. "Well, she has the opportunity to prove her worth just now."

I almost broke my neck craning to look at her. "Say what?"

She sniffed disgustedly. "Well, go on, Matthew. Jurgen will be making sure you pay up this time and last," she added warningly.

I was finished.

The world blurred just in time for me too watch a creep grin grow on Matthew's face─and then I was on the hallway just outside of Falk's place, safe and sound and on my knees.

Trembling on weak legs, I stood up with help of the doorknob. I punched the doorbell, my breath shallow and quick because my ears were filled with moans and gasps and they weren't pleasurable gasps the girl's, just grunts to take in breath over the pain of─

"Gwendolyn!" Gideon asked, forcefully pulling me into the loft. I shook his hand off. The proprietary caveman, just because he was sort of family didn't mean he could touch me. I brushed off the phantom of his touch from my wrist and walked into the kitchen. Unfortunately, since the loft had nearly no walls, Gideon was able to follow me without problem. "Did you know I can see your ass when you walk away?"

"That's your own fault. Why would you be looking so far down in the first place?" I swung open the fridge door. I ignored the prickling in my eyes and the bumps in my legs and arms in favor of looking something to gorge myself with.

"Of course. Guys are commonly gentlemen and don't look at girls' asses without their permission ever!" He didn't sound so casual now. Instead, he rather sounded like a slow burning fuse─closer and closer to _boom._

No chocolate milk. No prepared sandwiches. I shut the door with a bang and ripped open the cupboard. "Well, at least you admit you're a pig like the rest of them."

He ignored me and cornered me into the cupboard. I tensed all over and ran trembling hands over my arms. "And you smell of alcohol and─" He lowered his voice into a whisper, so close to me I could close my eyes and trust fall back if I didn't believe he would drop me in a heartbeat. I closed my eyes anyway, to smother the prickling tears. "Gwen, did you seriously go out, in the middle of the fucking night, no keys and obviously no mobile because where would you stick it into─to get fucked?"

I lashed around, unable to open my eyes because tears would flow and unable to walk away from Gideon de Villiers, ever. I spoke, belatedly, because I didn't want my voice to waver. "Gideon, get a sodding life," I growled, crashing open the microwave, "then leave me alone and go fuck yourself on it."

I grabbed a Happy Meal and left to my room, where I could cry in peace.


End file.
